In my view there are many points that link our martial art to what it means to be modern. Sociology is a complex and diverse subject but to put it simply its aim is to understand our social surroundings. Yes sociologists use big words and complex sentences, often boring you to death – but hidden in the poetry of jargon lies some very good theories of how different people have viewed society. I’m going to introduce a bit of a sociological concept here, as I believe it has a strong relevance to karate. However please remember I’m using karate as an example, not as an explanation. If you want to read more on this subject please let me know and I’ll recommend some decent and non-boring text.
Ambivalence is the coexistence, in one person, of opposing emotions or attitudes. It’s kind of an individual preference between to opposites, good and evil for example. Imagine one group of people; they see an action or something as being a method of being good. Then you have another group that see the same action as something evil. One of the best examples I could give would be the Holocaust, to the Nazi the extermination of the Jews was a ‘good’ method as it helped to make Europe better fit for German people and was a method to deal with their social problem. Whereas the opposing nations to the Nazi saw the Holocaust as an act of evil, as they did not see the rational reasoning for killing Jewish people as the reasoning for the act was not in their social manifesto.
Modern karate-do has ambivalence, it has become very diverse and extremely wide-spread, new styles have been created brining different techniques and different methods of ‘doing’ karate. For this to happen their must have been a pinning point in the evolution of karate, their must have been an ambivalent moment that took a new path of technique. At one point someone must have said “no I disagree, it should be like this.” and from this it’s spiralled of into something completely new. We can now look into two different styles and see completely different methods of technique. Kyokushin for example use momentum and swinging to create power, whereas in Shotokan we use hip rotation and snap for our source.
Staying with Shotokan, its history has been greatly affected ambivalent decisions, Shotokan was developed from a mixture of two other forms of Okinawa-Te – Naha-te and Shuri-te- in which Funakoshi Shihan picked and mixed elements from both into his karate. It was then his ambivalence that helped to establish a grading system, to say what is right and what is wrong. It was ambivalence that helped to create the famous Heian kata, and what other kata we see in the standard Shotokan format. Each point of great decision that Funakoshi Shihan and his predecessors have made about the method of karate has been guided my some level of ambivalent view.
We can go to an all style karate competition and see another karateka from a different style performing in kumite or kata, and to your own thoughts it looks bizarre and you pick up on the things that you think are wrong. We see things only in our own style, a kind of ethnocentrism of karate schools (we only see from our styles point of view). Whereas someone could watch you perform a kata or kumite and think things about our karate, as they again have their own view. Similarly the Nazi saw it good to exterminate Jewish people, the UK
Another strong point in which ambivalence peaks into our karate life is with each individual. At some point in our karate path we find what works for us and what doesn’t, kumite and kata are two good examples of this. We find in kumite that certain techniques and ‘naturalness’ are expressed, this is the karate that is ours and has been born from the natural ambivalence of our subconscious. Kata is another prime example and instead of me explaining there was recently a post by another JKS England karateka who explains this exactly.
There are many more examples in which this can happen in karate, it’s a concept that also applies to the much wider society as well. It’s difficult to understand how society has such a strong affect in our dojos. It’s often said that as soon as you put on your Dogi and tie your belt everyone becomes equal and that the world outside stays outside. However it can be said that the world outside the dojo still has a profound affect upon how we act and progress. Karate cannot be something outside society; it is deeply embedded in society and its forces. Osu.
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